Some of these articles have been scanned from the magazine and sections have become a bit garbled, maybe when time permits they will be proof read.
Issue 135 Spring 2008 The King is dead, long live the King
This issues ramblings are a celebration of the life and times of the Post Office 3000 type relay used in considerable numbers in Strowger exchanges, this fascinating topic might give one the idea that there is not much to write about and one would be quite correct.
When the Norstar switches were placed in service and the Strowger withdrawn a foolish mistake was made in trying to banish this magnificent piece of engineering to history.
Due to necessity one or two had to remain but these were hidden in dark out of the way corners almost as if one was ashamed to use them, we had gone modern and good riddance to the past, or so I thought.
An alarm scheme was made using relays but a smaller more modern version were used; these delicate items could be hidden in the tops of the comms rack, so far so good. The problem with the railway is it is always evolving and so is the telephone system, when some changes were required of the alarm system it proved extremely difficult to make alterations and to shorten what could be a long story the alarm system was rebuilt using 3000 type relays. Welcome back, all is forgiven.
Moving time
One item that was required to complete the move of the telephone equipment from the station building into the house was the shift of the power unit/battery cabinet into the cellar. As the height of the cellar ceiling was low (or the floor too high?) it was thought it would not be possible to access the cable connections which are at the top of the cabinet, Cunning Plan A was evolved, this was a two stage move and required a temporary fuse panel, this was duly made and left next to the power unit ready to be used with a large note stating “do not remove or throw out”. Students of Mid Hants antics will know what happened next so there is no need to go into any detail. Cunning Plan B, not requiring a temporary fuse panel, took place on September 7th last year. By that date the cellar floor had been lowered and fortunately access to the top of the unit was possible. This was one job that hadn’t filled one with enthusiasm and could have happily been deferred to the next centaury, it was decided to do it and was undertaken at very short notice.
Thanks to Bob Allen and team for helping move the cabinet into the cellar, I thought this was going to be the most difficult part of the job but it proved to be one of the easiest, also thanks to Frank Twine and his PW gang for shifting the 16 brand new batteries to site, that will ensure my car’s suspension will last a little longer. Yes I did write brand new batteries! It was getting rather silly swapping one set of life expired cells for another second hand set, the damned things are heavy and one isn’t getting any younger. Some pictures of the move can be seen on www.phones-midhants.co.uk/rpepower,aspx
Work load?
As mentioned earlier there is not much to write about, a handset on the phone in Medstead signal box went faulty and it had to be replaced, the phone in the ticket booth at Alton packed up, a fairly new cable at Ropley has had a couple of faults and needs investigating, it is suspected it has been damaged during some construction work. Two wooden code phones have been reinstated which will no doubt please some. An exchange isolation (total loss of service) was avoided when during an unplanned visit an alarm at Alton was noticed, the usual three I course of alarms on the railway had been followed. Alarm Instigated, alarm buzzer Inhibited followed by alarm Ignored, a visit to site was made and the equipment was found running on the standby batteries, the mains trip was reset and all back to normal before the batteries failed. Maybe one day someone will realise an alarm means something is not quite right.
If it isn’t broke don’t fix it
Taking this old saying a stage further what if it is broke and you cannot fix it or there is no one left to fix it?
Recently I received a letter from a group concerned about the lack of trained people left that are able to maintain Strowger exchanges on preserved railways; they are even considering setting up training courses for new "apprentices”. It seems a couple of railways are now down to a single trained volunteer and they are not getting any younger, this vindicates the decision to replace the old Strowger system on the Mid Hants for a modern one.
Strowger exchanges were being phased out 35 years ago, training new staff declined around that time. One could have an exchange out of service for want of a scarce relay coil last manufactured half a centaury ago or the only trained person has gone to collect their pension.
Not only but also.
Readers of the several articles in the last issue about work on the new signal box at Ropley may have thought there was no telecom activity involved as there was no mention made of any. Although the work involved was modest there was indeed some. Also modest was the amount of money spent by the department on its activities for this job, it came to a grand total of nothing.
Issue 136 Summer 2008 Ah….uuum…where was I?
Oh dear! I have forgotten what I was going to write about, could be either there is nothing much again to report or the affect of old age on ones memory. Ah! I remember now, there is nothing much to report.
So to fill up some space, for reasons unknown, it was suggested I write about the pros and cons of keeping Llamas as pets, all I know of these noble creatures is they nest in acacia trees and migrate across the Veld or am I thinking about something else? Not sure but I had better write something to keep the editors happy.
Here we go, sit down comfortably and await the excitement.
Phones
A handset on the phone in Medstead station office went crackly so was replaced, it seems this will be the item to feature in future editions as not much else thankfully goes wrong apart from noisy handsets. Doesn’t come more interesting than that!
Thanks to my good friends at the Festiniog Railway a couple of old bakelite phones were obtained. One has been installed in Alresford signal box and the other at Medstead; they are connected to the signal post telephone concentrators.
I thought this should keep happy the “don’t care if it works or not brigade as long as it is old”, problem was one didn’t work very well and someone complained!
The insides have been replaced by more modern bits, anyone of a nervous disposition not wishing to see extreme butchery to the insides of an old telephone should not look inside. One problem is obtaining suitable plaited handset cords so modern curly ones have been used, one realises they can be obtained by spending money but that is against ones ethics.
One phone had a note inside stating it had been modified in 1949.
The wooden phone, connected to the Norstar system, installed in Ropley box against all advice decided to play up; it had been previously taken out of service elsewhere on the railway as in worked when it wanted to. True to form in its new home it misbehaved, it now also has new inners fitted and time will tell if has solved the problem. These old phones are more trouble than they are worth.
Scrap cable
Mention was made in the last issue of the PW gang collecting “scrap” cable. I don’t think they should be the ones to decide what cable is “scrap”. Looking around one day to see where the remains of the cable left from the Alton – Medstead job was located none could be found, if there was a fault on the existing cable there is no spare cable to enable repairs to be undertaken. Due to the size of the conductor it could be difficult to obtain easily any replacement cable; it could be weeks even months before repairs were completed. When the cable was damaged at Ropley the day before the August 2007 Thomas event it was repaired within a few hours using 20ft of cable which to the un-wise could have been considered as scrap, we no longer have this luxury.
The drum of cable I had reserved for the Alton SPT job previously had been defined as “scrap”, so we have no cable for that job either.
Thought is being given to the practicalities of connecting the Norstar exchanges using VoIP (voice over internet) this would remove the need for the phone circuits between stations to run via the trackside cable, if the cable is damaged it will have no effect on the telephone traffic and I won’t have to rush out and fix it at short notice.
The xxxx that everyone is talking about
Often I hear or read this statement in the media, the xxxx refers to a book, film or piece of music that I have never heard of or ever heard mentioned by anyone else either. However one book that can be guaranteed to be talked about is the much awaited “Lofts of the Mid-Hants Railway – an illustrated guide”.
We are very fortunate that this epic tome is to be edited by Tobias Oberon as soon as he completes the second volume of his masterwork “Cast iron drain covers in the Vale of Pewsey – an illustrated guide”, available from all good book shops.
To celebrate the occasion there is to be a competition; the first name out of the hat that can correctly identify the loft space in the picture will win a carefully selected piece of heritage telephone memorabilia. This means an item that no practical use can be found for on the railway but one does not want to throw it away.
The picture was taken this year on the second of March and the loft is located somewhere on the railway between Jacklyns Lane Alresford and the London end of Alton station, if the editor does not include the picture in the magazine guessing is allowed.
Issue 137 Autumn 2008 Predictor of Beaconicity
This intriguing title appears to be one of the current buzz phrases, it has been used here as a lure, to trap to entice the unsuspecting reader into believing something intellectual or of interest might on the off-chance been written. Wrong! It is the down to the usual same low standards.
Excel-lent
Take the contents of a call logger and apply to an Excel spreadsheet add a little filtering and you can find enough useless information to fill an entire article when there is nothing else to write about, as I shall now prove.
Did you know that between January and April this year Alresford signal box rang the Ropley signal box 157 times but the Alton information office only once?
In the same interval 2 swipe machines at Alresford made 2400 calls, with human assistance one will hasten to add. While Alresford extensions call a dozen different extensions at Ropley they only call 3 at Medstead and 4 at Alton. I could go on but even I have lost interest.
There was a serious purpose for checking the logger output, it was combined with the itemised telephone bill and some dubious activities were identified.
Which handset has been changed since the last issue?
Always happy to answer this much asked question, this time it was one of the phones in the marketing office that had to be changed. These handsets cannot be repaired and a sizeable number of faulty ones have accumulated, fortunately a source of inexpensive second hand handsets was found so now we have plenty of spares.
Anything else?
The staff at Alton decided to re-arrange their office and at the same time the telephone distribution block was renewed, first fitted when the line opened to there all those years ago, one of the few remaining soldered blocks it has been replaced with a modern Krone block, at the same time a lot of redundant cable that had accumulated over the past 20 or so years was removed. There are to my knowledge only two solder blocks left on the railway, one in the locomotive department offices will remain as it is planned to move to a new building an additional Norstar extension was fitted in the office at the same time, work has not been finished as the building alterations have not been completed. A replacement platform bell was provided as the old ones gong fixing screw had a stripped thread. It doesn't get more exciting than that!
Wasting time one day I read the magazine of another preserved railway, somebody had written in saying how pleased they were that the railway in question had kept a telephone pole route that added to the ambience, unfortunately elsewhere in the same magazine it was recorded that underground cable was being installed due to maintenance difficulties with the overhead circuits. I agree that a properly installed and maintained pole route, such as on the Festiniog Railway, does add the atmosphere of a steam railway but they are fortunate in having a dedicated team with their own rail vehicles, no walking for miles carrying a ladder for them. In my humble opinion assorted cables slung from leaning poles washing line style does nothing to enhance a railway.
I remember very well at that time the Mid Hants overhead route was being disposed of there were a number of arm chair members who said “You” must keep the pole route and overhead wires , what I have completely forgotten is the self same people offering to help maintain it. I for one was glad to see it go and no doubt so were the few whose gallant efforts struggled to keep it going.
Well done
Congratulations are in order for Mrs Trellis of North Wales for winning the “identify the loft space in the picture” competition in the last issue, she correctly identified the loft space in question as being in the S and T building looking towards Alton, she wrote “I am delighted with the prize you sent and whatever it is you sent now takes pride of place in the smallest room in the house”
What is remarkable in her achievement is the photo was not even published.
Issue 138 Winter 2008/9 Faulty handsets? No problems!
Originally this item was going to begin by saying that anyone eagerly expecting details of handsets that had been changed since the last issue was going to be disappointed as none had, this item has featured in a number of past issue as the main activity undertaken by the department. Just before the article was submitted to the editors a handset had to be changed, but as it was felt the title was too good to waste it has been retained even if it isn’t true.
Oh no, not again!
Monday morning, around 9 o’clock, and toiling away at work suddenly a phone call from the railway, before you answer it you know it is going to be trouble as the only time you ever hear from them is when something goes wrong. Mr. Twine “the strimmer has strimmed a joint on the cable between Alresford and Ropley”. Not bad considering it is an underground cable. This isolated the phone service and signaling from Alresford to the rest of the line. To complicate matters it was a straight through joint so there was no slack to re joint the cable, a new short length of cable would have to be inserted meaning instead of the single old joint there would be two, another complication was there was no suitable cable with the correct number of conductors so two pieces of cable with fewer conductors had to be used. Work started after work and the circuits were restored within a couple of hours and service restored.
In the usual tradition of the cables being damaged before some big event the Autumn Gala was taking place starting the following Friday, it is fortunate the damage was done the day it was as for the next couple of days rained and I wouldn’t have been out working in those conditions.
A good idea?
It was one of those bright ideas that come in a flash and you decide to follow it through with no thought of additional work that could be involved.
The idea - a small modification to the exchange alarm system could give an off site notification to someone with a caller display phone that an alarm had occurred. Simple to do, it was initially added to the exchanges at Ropley and Medstead, it was realized at the time that it would be nice to be able to check by ringing a number to see if there was an alarm from off site but as there were so few alarms and it would involve extra work it was a case it would be a nice to have feature but not now.
The first alarm was received from Ropley less than 12 hours after the equipment had been connected, one now has a dilemma, do you rush out and see what the alarm is or wait to the next time one visits and find everyone else has ignored it as well, this is when the remote alarm check would be useful. It so happened there was an off the shelf solution available which might be the answer to the problem but required some minor changes, this was fitted as a trial and it decided it didn’t want to work on a Norstar system so in the end it meant building a small relay set using some ever faithful 3000 type relays and other odds and ends. Now from anywhere in the world one can phone up and check to see if an alarm exists at any station on the railway. As it is a basic system you know there is an alarm but not what type of alarm, this awaits another system being designed although another thought has just occurred to add an interim modification to allow this, or maybe I will just see what is on the TV, a lot less work. So far my tests have all been conducted from Winchester, if any one wishes to sponsor my tests from further afield, somewhere more exotic please get in contact.
Following a number of spurious alarms from Ropley it was thought it could be to a mains failure so another modification was added that would count the number and duration of these, so something starting of a simple got a lot more involved. While at Ropley modifying the equipment the mains went off for about a minute giving a good indication what the other alarms had been.
These days it seems everything has to have an acronym so after great thought; 30 seconds at least, it has been called OSAN - Off Site Alarm Notification. An internet search was made to see if OSAN was connected with anything interesting, a frog worshipped by the Celts for example, one entry revealed it was the base of the 51st Fighter Wing USAF in Korea, don’t let it be said the magazine isn’t educational.
Yard cable
The cable to the Ropley down home signal telephone had been laid on the surface, as is the tradition for too many cables in the past and accordingly it has suffered. It has been replaced with a new cable that runs in recently installed troughing; other telephone circuits in the yard area have also been replaced at the same time. Thanks go to the Sunday PW gang for their assistance, without it this job could not have been completed.
Extras
We have been fortunate to obtain a quantity of Norstar phones and equipment, thanks to those involved.
Lottery
With the welcome news the railway has received a grant for further developments it is going to involve some telecom activities; part of this is a small demonstration Strowger telephone exchange. I will now have to find my old adjustment tools, now I wonder where I were safely put them?
Finally
On the back page of the last issue is an idyllic scene of Medstead station taken from the footbridge, what does not enhance the view are the two cables running along the face of platform one. Never seeing the platform face from that direction I had forgotten they were still there, they are the remains of the redundant Ropley to Medstead cables; they have now been removed and the cable retained for future use.
Issue 139 Spring 2009 Oh no not again again - and so soon
The article for the last issue was sent to the editors late Sunday afternoon by the modern new fangled electrical system known as an e-mail, in it was a piece about a cut cable. The next day around mid morning came a message using a slightly older form of electrical communication, the telephone. Why is it when going to answer a phone call and seeing the name “Frank” on the display is one struck by a feeling of an impending disaster? Poor old Mr. Twine, does he deserve such a reputation as a harbinger of doom? In fact I have had many very positive phone calls with Frank, I put it on record he is a splendid fellow, however unfortunately today’s was not go to be one those calls. It seemed the cable had been strimmed yet again, this time for a change between Medstead and Alton, Repairs were delayed for a number of reasons, the time of year now meant the evenings got darker earlier and the extra distance to travel precluded attention after work also this section of line does not have any significant telephone traffic, if any, when trains are not running. However the main reason was a total lack of interest repairing a cable again when the damage had been caused by inattention to the job in hand. Repairs were completed later in the week before weekend trains services were run. Good news was heard later when it was reported the flail was broken.
Ancient and modern
Some years ago on being given the job of getting the signal box codes phones working a number of wooden cased phones were refurbished; this included replacing the existing inner workings with ones from a modern phone. These phones have worked well in the intervening period, however there were two drawbacks in that there were a number of soldered connections that would make any on site work more difficult and that the donor phone used employed two circuit boards making fitting it in its new home slightly more complicated. More recently several Bakelite phones were obtained for use in the signal boxes, although looking similar externally there were major differences inside. Keeping it to basics phones come in several flavours - local battery, LB, where each phone has its own battery and central battery, CB, where there is one main battery for all the phones connected. The Bakelite models we had were a mixture of LB and CB, in various states of internal neglect; all Mid Hants phones are CB. A simplified method of bringing these up to a modern standard was needed, after some investigation it was found that the circuit board from a late 700 series phone would be an ideal candidate.
The 700 type was in its day the workhorse of the phone system, introduced in the late 1950s it evolved over the years from the first versions with dials to the later models with key pads for tone dialling. Still going strong and it remains in every day service albeit in small numbers, very recently an advert was seen in a national newspaper offering a dial version for sale, the price wanted was ridiculous, we could do them much cheaper. With the new system only a single circuit board is used and all connections are screw type making any on site maintenance easier.
There are now 11 of these modified phones in use on the railway, the wooden code phones were also modified to the new standard, with a stock of donor phones available more could be created if required. One problem was obtaining suitable braided handset cords, when I mention obtaining that means getting for free, this was going to be a zero budget job if possible, in the end about £10 was spent, cotton covered cord found in my travels similar to that seen on railway issue phones has been used. Although externally there are quite a selection of phones modified circuitry wise they are the same, some have buzzers, some bells and others neither, getting the bits to fit has caused some lateral thinking, in one example the circuit board is no longer in the phone due to lack of space but fitted in the associated wooden bell box, three have dials but these are disconnected, Norstar exchanges don’t like dial phones, dial the digit 1 and they sulk and do nothing.. The usual practice is to divert incoming calls from the signal box Norstar phone to the old phone. Hopefully these phones might keep those who prefer older technology happy but I am not too expectant…
Rumours of cunningly disguising a Norstar phone as a LSWR fire bucket so it blends into the background are just that, rumours.
Phones-midhants.co.uk
The web site concerning the railway telephone activities has been on line now for over a year and gets a surprising number of visits, though what the interest to the visitor from Vietnam is remains a mystery.
The original idea was to put some basic information about the phone system on the web using a free site that had been found, the main attraction to me being the free bit; it also had the advantage it was simple to use. In the course of setting up the basic bits a lot of long forgotten information and photographs were found, to save the this from disappearing again anything relevant was up-loaded to the site, so from the original simple scheme the site has grown to include over 200 pictures, a number of dubious quality including the only known colour picture of the first Medstead exchange, also added are all the articles submitted over the years to the Mid Hants News, maybe that is what Chi Min Ho finds of interest.
Issue 140 Summer 2009 Communications matters (to some)
The good news is the installation of an eco polar bear friendly signal post telephone system, but more on that later. They often announce items on BBC Radio 4s Farming Today in that manner, whether it is to build up a feeling of anticipation and excitement of what is to come I don’t know, but it does not apply in this case.
All quite on the railway front
There have been a couple of faults with signal post telephones; no doubt by now someone on the railway knows that a BT Duet 100 phone is a poor substitute for a hammer. One of the robust railway type SPTs also gave up working, the question was asked why we don’t use the more robust types instead of the cheap and cheerful ones, many of which are in service. For the cost of one robust SPT, which have proved unreliable and un-repairable, it is possible to purchase nearly 150 cheapo models.
The final part of changes in the Ropley station building were completed with the fitting of a couple of phone lines in the new booking office, at the same time the temporary distribution point in the loft above the booking office which had existed since the exchange was transferred in February 2005 was moved to a more accessible location which doesn’t involve the use of a ladder to get to it.
Alton SPT
This job seems to have been going since times immemorial. The basic circuitry used is based on the SPT equipment already in use at the other three stations with one main difference. When Alton box is closed and the signalling is working in its automatic mode the SPTs need to be extended back to Medstead signal box
As the box would be closed for longer periods and working automatically than opened and staffed it was decided that the phones under normal circumstances would go to Medstead and only be switched to Alton when that box was open. Relay switching was to be used so the relays are only energised when Alton is open, this reduces load on the battery, although not much it will help when the mains goes off and the “mains fail” alarm is ignored.
Some relay sets had been built a number of years ago and a rack installed in the telephone exchange along with some rough diagrams how the circuits would be switched, an indication of how long ago it was planned is the original scheme didn’t have sufficient spare cable pairs available between the two stations, accordingly the inter-connect circuit only needed one pair of wires to divert all the SPTs.
At the end of last year it was decided something had better be done on this job so the diagrams were found and it was realised that things had got far too complicated, while it would have worked there was limited space for the relays involved. The best bits of the design were kept and a simplified version planned, this used two pairs of wires, one for calls in either direction. By now there were going to be two separate concentrators at Medstead, one for that stations SPTs and the other for the Alton ones, it required an additional phone, thoughts originally were to have one phone to handle calls from SPTs at both stations, this had the disadvantage that if the phone went faulty both systems in the same wooden box if affected all phones and again it complicated the design. Although separate the keys and lamps for and there has been very little external work done so far. Thanks to the traffic staff for giving the system a thorough work out.
After the furore of putting a modern phone in Ropley signal box recently the opinion of the signal staff were asked if they wanted the extra phone to be an old wooden type or modern version, the few who bothered to answer indicated they were happy with a modern phone, this suited me fine as it was a lot less work. Modern keys have had to be used as someone had dumped the ones reserved for this job.
Once the basic design had been completed thoughts were given to “what ifs”, trying to think of ways things could go wrong, although a number were identified requiring additional relays and alterations only operational use will show any problems so far not thought of.
Although this is the simplified design there are over 130 relays used at Alton, another 25 have been added at Medstead, here both systems share 2 relays of the existing equipment, apart from that they are entirely separate.
Enough equipment was ready for the system to be used during the Spring Steam Gala; this was an excellent opportunity for a lot of calls to be made as both boxes were staffed for 3 days. A phone acting as an SPT was fitted in Alton box, no major problems were identified apart from a noisy cable pair causing problems in one direction, there had been no time to sort this out before the event. There is still some internal work to be completed
Over 100 calls were made using the system during the event.
Why an eco system?
Everything used, well about 99%, are recycled items.
The joys of hoarding.
For the previously mentioned work a small electrical device was required to fit in a telephone, used in the days of shared service phones I doubt if we had a use for one in the last 15 years or more. A quick trip to Acme Supplies and a browse through the stores itinerary – rack 7, shelf E, drawer 6 revealed half a dozen. Sorted in seconds, if only every thing in life was as simple.
Issue 141 Autumn 2009 The story so far
In the last issue it was recorded the Alton SPT circuitry was tested during the Spring Steam Gala, at the time calls in one direction were noisy but there was no opportunity then to look at the problem. It was assumed the cable pair between Medstead and Alton was faulty and causing the noise, after the event a spare pair was tested and the circuit was moved to it, when checked it was still noisy. The moral here is don’t jump to hasty decisions. Further investigation located the problem between Medstead signal box and the telephone exchange. The cable has been tested and no major fault could be identified which is annoying as something is definitely wrong with it. The cable was installed about 15 years ago and was the best we had at the time, if the same job was being done today it wouldn’t be done the same way. The plan is to replace the signal box cable and one to the station building, installed at the same time, with new cables.
At the time of writing the cable had been ordered and was on site and hopefully by the time of reading they will be in service, this part involves talking nicely to some people.
To help fund the cable some of our category 3 spares were sold, these are items we have no use for, are too good to throw away and someone somewhere might give us money for them. Placing them on the telecom web site www.phones-midhants.co.uk/sales.aspx , a rather blatant plug, items sold accounted for around half the cost of the new cable. At the same time a lot of category 4 items were disposed of, these are items possibly no good to man nor beast with no reason to retain, some bits were given away and the rest went in the skip, a very sad day indeed. This didn’t stop someone coming along afterwards and rescuing most of the stuff from the skip in a valiant attempt to get it working again, good luck! At least it is off site and no longer taking up valuable storage space.
Charity begins at home
Knowing someone who wanted a large current output transformer and some old style power units for what I consider a very worthwhile project they were contacted and told the items were available for collection but after 6 weeks, if not collected, they would have to go in the skip as we could no longer store them, they said they were very interested and would arrange to collect them. After the deadline passed the items were still uncollected and so went in the skip. I get the distinct impression they were waiting for the items to be delivered. Another very keen person was always going to collect some items “next weekend” has never appeared. Seems at times you cannot even give stuff away. Others said they would turn up on a certain day and always did, thanks must go to station staff who were on site to allow for mid week collections.
Anything else?
It has been quiet recently, which is how it should be. A cordless phone was fitted in the station office at Medstead along with an external bell. The Golden Rule “if it is working leave it alone” was blatantly ignored when it was decided to tidy up some cables in the exchange at Medstead, this dislodged the fibre optic cable linking two Norstar units together causing some extensions not to work. Another day saw a trip to Alton to look at the ticket booth phone that had been reported as being dead, this revealed the cable had been pulled from the phone socket and coiled neatly on the roof, no ordinary vandals were at work here as they had gone to the trouble of taping over the ends of the conductors. Another report and a visit to Ropley to attend to the non working phone in the booking office, here someone had removed the line cord from the correct socket on the phone and plugged it into the one for a headset. Could it be someone is testing our faulting skills.
Stores sorting has been done and as mentioned earlier items thrown away. The planned demonstration Strowger exchange has been moved to its third temporary home or it could be its fourth, lost count some time ago, A base for a Bakelite 200 series phone was required for the telephone in the kiosk at Medstead, none could be found despite a good search in the stores so using a base from a working phone as a pattern Mark made a wooden replica. Shortly after this was completed a further tidy up began and within about 5 minutes of moving boxes about several suitable phone bases turned up, such is life.
Statistics
With www.phones-midhants.co.uk one can look at usage logs, such as the number of daily visitors, repeat visits, pages looked at and other things plus bits I don’t understand. One item noticed over the months that I found interesting is that a link from the Dean Forest Railway telecoms site, www.dfrtelecoms.org.uk, while not producing the greatest number of visitors those that do visit look at the most pages, I thought I had to share that fact with someone.
And finally
This is an e-mail I received via the contact page on www.phones-midhants.co.uk, thought I should get one last mention in, I have no idea if it a wind up, the grammar has not been altered - “i am danish from pakistan, i am intersted in buying scrap telephone exchange old relay,. if you provide me scrap of exchange, plz let me your price for per matric ton, if you have,. to sell, i have best thanks. hope we will start new good business in near future, bye regards. from Danish”.
The idea was to just ignore it, it was assumed highly unlikely the accounts office would want to deal in Rupees although giving it further thought I could be wrong, unfortunately due to a mix up with a reply to another sales enquiry e-mail this person was sent a message saying to make an offer for the items and the postage would be £2.70.
Issue 142 Winter 2009/10 Dynnargh dhyworth Hyns-horn Mid Hants *
Always trying to be innovative when writing these features or to put it another way “what can I possibly put this time to I fill up a page?” this is a first for this column and possibly for the magazine, a special welcome for our readers in Kernow, of which there are at least two, Hello Pat and Derek.
D’Artagnan and Co.
Mention was made in the last issue of new cables being installed at Medstead, this job was done during the last Sunday of the August Thomas event, I was ably assisted again by the Sunday PW gang who perhaps now should be called the Sunday Fencing gang on account of the amount of fencing they do, so a big thanks to the Three Musketeers, Brian, Dave and John, where would I be without them?. The cables were placed in service the following weekend.
Alton
Earlier this year an attempt was made to get two spare pairs of wires between Alton station and the telephone exchange for the forthcoming signalling installation, it could be the new in service signalling installation by the time this is read. The records showed there were a number of spares, however on testing them they were all found to be faulty.
The story goes back to the days before the railway opened the service to Alton; an underground duct was buried for the various services with spaced access manholes between the exchange and the station, a first for the railway. Two separate telephone distribution points were set up at the station and for a while all was well. However burying the duct fairly deep didn’t stop someone a few years later getting some form of mechanical digging implement and digging up the cables and severing them, duly repaired at the time it was one of these cable that was now causing problems. In the interim a tie cable was run between the two station distribution points so if the faulty cable caused further problems service could be supplied by the other cable. This removed the urgency to replace the cable; this was also part of a scheme to generally tidy up the station wiring, some which was installed 25 years ago.
The plan is to replace the existing cables to the exchange with new ones but this time using the S and T trackside troughing that didn’t exist when the job was first done, no attempt is going to be made to use the existing buried duct, often trying to replace a cable causes damage to the in-situ one plus someone has thoughtfully put a point motor on top of one of the access manholes. Hopefully this job should have been completed before this issue is published.
Anything else?
Other highlights have been fitting an extension bell for the station office at Alresford, a spare pair of wires was found from the location of the new bell back to the main distribution case, another spare was found from there to the office, join the two together. A straightforward job, apart from finding the correct key for the office door. The router for CressNet, our in house IT system, at Medstead decided not to work, this was proved to be a power supply problem, then the PW PC couldn’t access the internet, a missing IP address was the cause, wonder where it went?.
Rather late in the day mention was made of the phone and IT requirements for the new shed at Ropley, life would have been a lot easier if we had been involved earlier in the proceedings. Two new cables will be run from the station building, one for the phones and the other the IT; note the use of the word “new” thankfully the days of finding something second hand and making do are over. The departmental copy of Acme Publishing’s “Build a telephone system for less than five shillings” now sits on the shelf and gathers dust.
A day off and I was showing my opposite number from the Festiniog Railway round trying to impress him how well everything was working when I was presented with an neatly coiled overhead cable that had just recently been brought down, as this provided the external phone service to Ropley station attention was required, a name was mentioned who was responsible, it is not being repeated to protect the guilty. If it is the person mentioned they seem to be providing a job creation scheme for the department, no matter where the cable is, in the air or underground this individual can cut it.
The following morning the circuits concerned were re-routed underground before the daily service started and no longer go overhead, the only problem is now they go via the amenity building so when it either gets replaced or falls down the circuits will have to be diverted again. I well remember putting this cable up a number of years ago and must admit it station looks better it is no longer there, the block terminal that was used on these lines has since seen further use at Alton, waste not want not.
They seek him here
Some people ask why there is not a great deal of telecom activity to be seen or even staff who are often conspicuous by their absence, simply ii is because there isn’t a great deal to be done, plus if it is working leave it well alone and stay away. Being a modern system it needs no routine maintenance that the old Strowger exchanges we once used required, if time could be found for mundane tasks like bank cleaning and oiling that is.
Unlike, for example, the Wagon Group or the PW who have regular working parties there is nothing similar with the phones. The system is in and working and sits there week after week happily switching calls without regular attention. At odd times the occasional job turns up, such as the bell mentioned earlier, this took one person about an hour and it was done out of hours when no one was about. Some time ago Phil and myself found if you want to attract a sizeable crowd just find a deserted platform unroll a drum of cable and within minutes the hordes will appear to walk all over it, so if you want to get something done do it when most sensible people are still in bed. Faults need to be attended to in a short a time scale as possible so nothing there can be planned. Other jobs needing several people for a short time and you request the services of the fencing gang, job done they can be sent on their way. On reflection I might be confusing what sort of fencing they are involved with.
The prodigal returns
Our small Strowger demonstration exchange has had its wings clipped and its nomadic days are over, now back in safe storage in the capable hands of Acme Supplies, it awaits the day when it is installed at Medstead to show how proper telephone exchanges used to be, when I were a lad.
Far from the madding crowd
For Members and Shareholders day it was decided to open one of the exchanges for viewing for a couple of hours. Medstead was chosen as it is the most practical to look at, although there is not much to see, it was even tidied for the occasion. The powers that be were informed, who thought it a good idea. Come the day and nobody turned up, if this is done another year I must take a good book to read to pass the time.
* Greetings from the Mid Hants Railway
Issue 143 Spring 2010 SPTs, again?
Yes I’m afraid this is what this article starts with, Signal Post Telephones.
Thanks to the S and T department the cables for the Alton installation were run during October and then all that needed doing was a number of joints to be completed, to prove circuits back to the exchange and see if they worked.
In the signal box a hole was finally cut in the console to mount the associated key and lamp unit and a small panel with indicator lamps fitted. Originally this was going to be finished in a style to match the main panel but nothing came of that idea so one was made at home, this one doesn’t match but is better than nothing, just.
One problem with SPTs is they sit in their little boxes along side the track unwanted, never checked and unloved until the day someone has reason to use one and find it doesn’t work. What the user does not realise is several weeks ago someone cut through the cable.
In the early days of the present Alresford system a couple of the furthest SPTs had an additional relay set added which would detect if the cable to the phone went faulty and give an alarm, The equipment used must have been one of the early uses of transistors in telephone exchanges but didn’t prove to be successful on the railway so were removed from use.
It was possible with some of the Alton SPTs to run a second pair of wires to the phone and this will be used as a simple alarm, the main concern in this location was vandalism. Thinking there must be a modern way to replicate the original Alresford version with something more modern an idea evolved which was passed to our newly established Research and Development Department to see if it was practical. This power house of radical ideas has been established in a shed somewhere in South East Hampshire and takes my fanciful ideas and develops them into a theoretical circuit, problem is by then I have moved on to something else and that is normally about as far as it ever goes. A very nice circuit was produced for a cable alarm. Everything would have fitted into an existing relay set and the keenness at the time was so great that a relay set was taken home so a start could be made making one; it still sits in the garage maybe when the warmer weather arrives.
It’s broken
The S and T decided to test the cable pairs between Alton and Medstead they will be connecting the token machines to, one was faulty “could you have a look”.
Here begins the lesson - Solo fault finding for beginners. At the far end connect the two wires of the pair together. Go to the local end and connect an ohmmeter across the pairs, the pairs that don’t give a reading are the faulty ones. Having identified the problem pair or pairs if ones luck isn’t in connect a tester, called a Mole, no idea why it is called that so no need to ask, this indicates how far away the fault is on a screen, or in our case it doesn’t. Express ones opinion how one is not at all happy with this outcome and then go to Plan B, loop the pairs at the local end. Next drive to some location between both ends which inevitability means climbing up a muddy bank carrying a large quantity of tools and testers, open up the cable joint, split the troublesome pair or pairs and test with the ohmmeter in either direction. If one is lucky one direction will give a reading the other won’t, the one without the reading is the faulty one, if neither direction gives a reading it is really your unlucky day and you have two faults, or the leads on the tester have decided to go faulty, it happens, been there, done it. Get the Mole and take a measurement on the faulty pair and exclaim further annoyance when again it indicates there is no fault. At this point one must know which cable goes which way, simple to do but outside the scope of this lesson, maybe next time.
No point heading in the Alton direction if the problem lies towards Medstead, I only mention this as so far everything else is not going according to any plan. Collect all tools etc, manage to get down muddy bank in one piece alive and drive to another joint some distance away, scramble up another muddy bank wondering why at ones age you are doing this, even more so during Winter and why not take up stamp collecting as a hobby. Repeat the tests, prove which direction the fault is and connect the Mole which yet again remains consistent and still shows no fault. By now it is raining so one decides to call it a day, go home but purchase a copy of Philately for beginners Weekly on the way.
Repeat attempt
Next visit the performance is repeated but with one big difference, some pairs that were previously faulty are no longer so and some of the good pairs have gone faulty.
However nothing changes regarding the Mole and by now whatever it displays is no longer believed so is decided to take it off site so it can be compared with another similar tester.
At the time of writing it has been successfully proved that the railway tester is incapable of locating a fault even if it jumped out and bit it, so it is a case of start all over again with the proven tester hopefully by then the weather will have warmed up considerably.
The And Finally bit
This bit came as a suggestion from the R and D department - “Why not list all the different types of circuit that go through telecom cables on the railway”. Indeed why not, some of these circuits are 7 miles long, some only a few feet, writing down the list it even surprised me the variety, no doubt I have forgotten some.
Here goes, 51 analogue phone extensions and 78 digital phone extensions connected to the 4 Norstar exchanges, lines connecting these exchanges to the outside world for speech and broadband, digital links between the Norstar exchange for inter station calls, WAN (wide area network) also known as CressNet connecting stations to the internet, LAN (local area network) connecting PCs to CressNet where it hasn’t been practical to run Cat5 cable. Alarm and indication circuits, clocks. Signal bits include SPTs, direct signal box to signal box phones, token machines, platform bells and at one station a “train arrive complete” indicator plus the good old Butts Treadle circuit now enjoying its last days of service. The circuitry that connects the Alton SPTs back to Medstead, there have even been recent mutterings of CCTV.
Finally not forgetting the AES EBU digital audio circuit at Ropley, no, I have no idea what it means.
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